UP TO 120!..

Longevity apparently seriously worries our bosses

...As the Jews say when they want to congratulate someone and wish them with all their hearts. But more on that a little later (not about Jews).

Do you know your ancestry going back any number of generations? What do I know about my people? My great-grandfather's name was Alexey Kalinovich. Bolshevik activist, was repressed during the Great Terror. His father's name was Kalin. He had a sister, Yazykanna, and brothers, Titus and Put (from this ancient name, by the way, the surname of one well-known man came from). And these three brothers and sister had a father - Tagan, my great-great-great-grandfather. So, according to family legend, grandfather Tagan lived to be 112 years old and died in the Tula province during the revolution. Family legends are a beautiful thing, but unreliable. Did my distant ancestor really live that long or did the old people exaggerate?

For example, Klavdia Gadyuchkina, who lives in Yaroslavl and was born either on December 5, 1910, or (according to her) on November 29, 1909, is considered the main long-liver of Russia. Also due to such significant discrepancies, Claudia Mikhailovna’s age has not been confirmed by international standards and the Russian woman is not included in the official list of the planet’s main centenarians maintained by the Gerontological Research Group. As well as numerous Caucasian elders, who, according to their fellow countrymen, lived almost 150 years. In Soviet times, there was a legend about the Azerbaijani shepherd Shirali Muslimov, who allegedly lived for 168 years. But it was impossible to really prove this.

There are also doubts about the age of the French woman Jeanne Calment, who was born on February 21, 1875, and died on August 4, 1997, having lived 122 years and 164 days. Allegedly. But it is believed that it is more likely yes than no. And Kalman is the only inhabitant of the earth who has crossed the 120-year mark. So a traditional Jewish wish is a very good one!

Why am I even writing about all this? Moreover, for example, Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova at a press conference dedicated to the start of the movement “For Healthy Longevity Medicine” said this: “We understand perfectly well that each person has different potential. Some people age very quickly, some people age slowly. Those who age slowly have a fairly high potential to live to 100 or 120 years old.” And she added that the prerequisites for achieving such fantastic milestones already exist not only in certain parts of the world, but also in our country.

The news teletype immediately reinforced this with the message that 294 centenarians aged 100 years and older live in Tatarstan, including 33 men and 261 women. And just two years ago there were 211 people who passed the century mark. Where did another 83 people come from? Apparently, two years ago they were all 98-99 years old. How else?

In terms of longevity, the Japanese have long had no equal. The government of the Land of the Rising Sun released new data as of September 15. So, at this moment, the number of people aged 100+ reached a record high of 99,763 people, which indicates the growth of this demographic group for 55 years in a row! For comparison, calculations began in 1963, and at that time there were only 153 centenarian citizens living in Japan. The average life expectancy in the country is now 84.9 years for men and 87.9 years for women.

In Russia, men live on average 68 years, and women 78. There are about 18 thousand centenarian Russians, according to the Ministry of Health.

All this would be nothing more than entertaining statistics, and Golikova’s statement is nothing more than bureaucratic projection from the same series as statements about the creation of a reusable ship, like Elon Musk’s, in the next five years or about the construction of hundreds of domestic aircraft by 2030. But you and I heard an overheard conversation between Putin and Xi Jinping during the SCO summit, where the leaders of the countries seriously discussed among themselves that at 70 years old in our time a person is still a child (Putin is soon 73, and Xi is a year younger) and that thanks to biotechnology it will soon be possible to permanently transplant organs and achieve immortality, and in this century people will be able to live up to 150 years. By the end of the century, Putin will be 148, Xi 147 - well, almost...

After a trip to China, the Russian President was told about rejuvenating strawberries, and in general the topic of longevity became not just a regular item on the agenda, but a permanent one. Therefore, Golikova was not joking, and her words were not an incident in the category of “shaken up.” Longevity, apparently, seriously worries our bosses. Why suddenly?

We hear calls every day to improve the demographic situation. After all, the population has been steadily declining in recent years. People are encouraged to give birth right from school, abortions are prohibited and they are punished for promoting childfree behavior. Although every demographer will say that the birth rate is part of the problem. Life expectancy and its quality are important. So that people are healthy, remain active at an increasingly serious age and live longer. But they hardly talked about this side of the coin, just “give birth, give birth, give birth”...

No one will say this out loud, but there is no place for old people here in Russia. They are more of a burden than “human capital”. There are more and more pensioners. They need to pay pensions and index them. These obligations hang like a stone on the state, which either froze pension savings or raised the retirement age.

Previously, pensioners were needed because they were the very nuclear electorate - obedient, dependent, dutiful, giving an excellent percentage in elections. Now, with the spread of three-day elections and the massive introduction of electronic voting, there is no such urgent need for the votes of older people. Technology makes it possible to do just fine without them. Then why are they needed - just extra hassle and expense?

Of course, after Golikova’s words, everyone managed to joke about the retirement age. Since we will live 100-120 years, we can work longer! You can’t sit on the state’s neck for half your life in retirement!

Work until you are 80, and at the same time please your younger relatives, who will also not have to spend money, effort and time on you. But the retirement age can be raised in this way. After all, when it was raised in 2018, there was no increase in life expectancy. Tales and propaganda were observed. But the retirement age was raised anyway. And although discontent was present, it had long since subsided. After 2018, it became clear that there are worse stories in the country and in the world than raising the retirement age...

...You can, of course, reassure yourself that at 70 years old people are now like children. But when they say about older people that they have relapsed into childhood, this is, in fact, not a compliment. And understanding the frailty of existence and the finitude of any life path does not eliminate the desire to live longer. Only some people have desires, and some have opportunities. If you and I break the record of Jeanne Calment or Claudia Gadyuchkina, it will not be thanks to a rejuvenating berry or a machine that prints organs to transplant them endlessly, but thanks to genetics, the “selling girl of bourgeois science.” That is, essentially, by accident. But management cannot rely on chance. He really would like to live a long time. At least to realize your grandiose plans, of which there are more and more and which cannot be realized in three days. But if you live to 150 or at least 120 years!

But there is also good news. When people want to live so much, it is logical to assume that they do not want to die at all.

So the fears that some elderly leaders in their declining years will begin to throw atomic bombs in all directions, because they themselves do not have much time left, and do not care about others - well, these fears are exaggerated. We will live to be 150 years old. At least up to 150 of them.